


Stake

by Oparu



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-26
Updated: 2011-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:51:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A late night poker game turns into a standoff between Deanna and Beverly with an old Academy solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stake

**Author's Note:**

> written for cosmic_ilin's femslash comment ficathon. thanks for running it!

Normally she'd give in. She would have conceded several hands ago if she didn't have tomorrow off. Will, Geordi, even Worf, they're all long gone and it's just Deanna, trying desperately not to read Beverly's mind, and Beverly.

Who has just about every chip in Will's set, and has been on the kind of hot streak Will says everyone should avoid.

Deanna can't. She's usually non-competitive. Betazoid games are always cooperative because mind-reading ruins most competitive advantages. She knows better than to be in this place. She knows better than to have her mind set on something that's not going to happen.

Yet here she is, two queens and a nine showing with two fours in the hole. She could try to bluff, but Beverly's been playing the empath all night. For the first time since Deanna swore she wouldn't cheat at poker, she wants to. Whatever is behind Beverly's impish little smile needs to be conquered.

"Call."

Deanna shoves in her last gold chip to match Beverly's.

Deanna's queens are high, so Beverly shows her hand first. A seven, a ten, a three, nothing special except that they're all spades. As is the five and the jack she flips over.

"You're cheating."

"I'm not. I'm not. It's just been a good night."

"Uh-huh." Deanna glances down at her chips. Three silver chips isn't even enough to start a hand and she's about to concede defeat when Beverly reaches across the table and pats her hand.

"I'll stake you three hundred for your shoes."

"My shoes?"

"What, you never played strip poker at the academy?"

"No strip poker I ever played started with my shoes."

Beverly smirks. "Then we won't count them, three hundred for your tights."

Deanna's top goes for five hundred and loses to a trio of eights. Her skirt only four hundred, because it's already short, and though she thinks she has her, she loses again to a straight, king high.

Beverly studies her across the table as Deanna turns up the heat in her quarters. "It's not really fair to bet chips for your bra. Tell you what, win this one, and you can take something of mine."

"Now that's incentive."

For some reason, possibly the intervention of the four deities themselves, Deanna wins with a full house. Beverly waits for Deanna to choose. She's less appropriately attired, her dress is one piece and unlike Deanna, her legs are bare.

"Your panties."

Beverly raises an eyebrow. "Going for the jugular?"

"If I win, I want something to really be won."

Deanna doesn't elaborate why seeing Beverly naked would be a win more important than getting back her chips; Beverly doesn't ask. She stands and shimmies out of her panties with a practiced ease.

Deanna rolls her eyes playfully. "You're far too good at that to be trustworthy."

"Poker has nothing to do with trust."

Two aces win Deanna Beverly's bra, and then another straight loses Deanna hers.

"Only a culture with issues with their bodies would think being naked is a disincentive in a game."

Beverly's quips are a little slower with Deanna's breasts bare, but her cards are not distracted in kind. She has two threes showing, and Deanna only has a queen and ten. Her eight and seven in the hole are a potential straight, but she's not setting her luck on that. Beverly gets another three and Deanna shakes her head.

"Are you giving my clothing back? Or am I walking home naked?"

"Depends on this card, doesn't it?"

Deanna stares at the deck, sighs and turns the card over. A jack, the jack of diamonds, but it doesn't matter what suit he is; he's finished Deanna's straight. She stares at it, dumbfounded, and Beverly starts to laugh as she flips over her cards. Two pair has nothing on Deanna's straight.

"Better look up or you'll miss the show."

Beverly turns her back to Deanna, nimble fingers easing down the zipper, almost in slow motion. With no bra to mar her back, the zipper bares only skin. She slips out one shoulder, then the next. Neither of them are discussing why she's stripping, or why Deanna finds it so fascinating. That part of the conversation is long over, all that matters is the skin the dress leaves behind as it snakes down Beverly's hips, then finally down to the floor.

Beverly turns, hands brazenly on her hips. "Well, Deanna, I hope you had something in mind for your prize."


End file.
